Research & reports

Amélie André · · United Kingdom

This case study of Letchworth Garden City examined the interplay between the town's layout, social practices, and governance supporting a local sustainable food economy. Food mapping and an ethnographical approach showed how Letchworth's masterplan provides a backbone for alternative food infrastructure, though the edible landscape is not always visible or effective for residents. Discussions with experts also pointed to a gap in coordination among key local stakeholders, which would be beneficial for improving the local urban food strategy.

Ann-Kristin Steines, Michele D’Ostuni, Anna Wissman, Kathrin Specht, Chiara Iodice, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Francesco Monticone, Isabella Righini, Véronique Saint-Gès, Antonella Samoggia, Francesco Orsini · Cities · Europe

This research addressed international and national policies, as well as related constraints and challenges affecting City Region Food System (CRFS) development in six European countries. Data was collected through desktop research, stakeholder interviews, and a workshop. The study found that planning laws restrict possibilities for food production in cities, and legal frameworks prevent the marketing and sale of food produced by non-commercial actors or informal farmers. It also identified a need to expand vocational training in the agricultural sector.

Alexander Follmann, Dorothea Hohengarten · transcript Verlag eBooks · Germany (Cologne)

This publication, titled "Ernährungsrat, Essbare Stadt, Gemeinschaftsgärten: Innere und äußere Logiken und Widersprüche der sozialökologischen Transformation durch Urban Gardening am Beispiel Köln," discusses the internal and external logics and contradictions of socio-ecological transformation through urban gardening, using Cologne as an example. The abstract states that this work was published in "Unterwegs in die Stadt der Zukunft" on page 241.

Lucas López Sosa, Gloria E. Casanova Molina · Revista Temas Sociológicos · Spain (Barcelona), Chile

This ethnographic study conducted in Barcelona and Santiago de Chile comparatively analyzed the social utilities, conflicts, and tensions faced in the daily management of urban community gardens. The study found significant symbolic and practical similarities between the gardens in both cities, despite geographical and cultural differences, highlighting their value as tools for urban and social regeneration.

Lara Houston, Sara Heitlinger, Ruth Catlow, Alex Taylor · Policy Press eBooks · United Kingdom (London)

Workshops critically experimented with the possibilities and challenges of blockchain as an infrastructure for food abundance and reparative work, using fictional scenarios set in a London transformed into a city farm by 2025. This experimentation suggested that blockchain presents challenges to such restorative and sustainable work. For participants, reparation involved working in the aftermath of social and environmental collapse to bring into being more-than-human-value systems that radically decentered human knowledge and experience.

Runrid Fox-Kämper, Caitlin K. Kirby, Kathrin Specht, Nevin Cohen, Rositsa T. Ilieva, Silvio Caputo, Victoria Schoen, Jason K. Hawes, Lidia Poniży, Béatrice Bechet · Landscape and Urban Planning · Europe; United States

The relationship between urban agriculture (UA) and food-energy-water (FEW) nexus policies was analyzed using policy data from five case study cities in Europe and the U.S. (Dortmund, Gorzów Wielkopolski, London, Nantes, and New York City). An analysis of 78 policy documents and a Q-sort ranking by UA policy experts showed that the number, type, and degree of support for nexus policies varied among cities, and few policies (19) incorporated all elements of the nexus. Regulations were considered more effective at ensuring resource-efficient UA than incentives or awareness-raising policies.

Bernd Bonfert · · United Kingdom; Germany

This article investigates "network failure" and collaboration barriers within Community-supported agriculture (CSA) networks in the UK and Germany, using qualitative case studies. The study found that CSA networks function effectively at national and local levels but experience relative failure at the regional level. Regular barriers to collaboration arise from capacity limitations, member differences, and competition, which the networks are actively trying to address.

Susana Alves, Bahar Bașer Kalyoncuoğlu · Ecopsychology · Turkey (Istanbul)

This study explored the socio-ecological potential of urban agriculture in 10 family-related projects in Istanbul, where Bostans (historical urban vegetable gardens) are culturally significant. Despite their importance and UNESCO recognition, the planning and management of bostans have been hampered by rapid urbanization and a lack of integrative policies. Data from interviews, observations, and fieldwork highlighted the role of kinship in knowledge transfer and how farmers base activities on past-present affordances and future expectations.

Alioune Badara Dabo · Norois · France (Île-de-France)

This article analyzes how the public land tenure system, introduced in the 2018 "Agricultural Pact" in the Île-de-France region, articulates with local farming systems. Based on a qualitative survey conducted in the Green Belt area, the findings reveal that this land tenure system does not fully align with the strategies of farmers, particularly young people outside family farming who wish to establish themselves in agriculture, as they do not necessarily seek land ownership.

Michael G. Parkes, Rebekah O’Rourke, Tiago Domingos, Ricardo F. M. Teixeira · Sustainability · Europe

An experimental indoor vertical farm urban-agriculture project involving 27 stakeholder groups was set up in a university building in Lisbon, Portugal in 2018 and closed in 2022; this study analyzed the governance dimension of the project's sustainability using role-constellation mapping of the stakeholder groups and force-field analysis across seven governance factors to understand why the project did not continue. It found that despite early positive outcomes across environmental, social and economic dimensions, the project failed to establish a network of stakeholders consistently engaged in governance from the outset, and that inadequate project culture and a lack of critical governance factors led to a failure to convey a sense of ownership to stakeholders, contributing to the project's closure.

Mahir Yazar, Ece Baykal Fide, İrem Daloğlu Çetinkaya · Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning · Turkey

A 2023 study of climate policies in nine cities in Turkey examined how vulnerable groups and individuals are identified and how land-use policy is developed to address the identified vulnerabilities and climate justice concerns, using policy content analysis and expert interviews. The analysis found critical relationships between identified vulnerable groups, responsive land-use policy and climate justice. While social-aid municipalism-related vulnerabilities dominated districts' climate policies, nature-based solutions (NBS) — especially green infrastructure and urban agriculture — emerged as the dominant climate adaptation approach. However, the way urban vulnerabilities are prioritized in the climate and sustainability plans places less emphasis on intersectionality and infrastructure-related vulnerabilities, and tokenism of justice occurs in the policy documents: the plans do not incorporate vulnerable communities into land-use planning. The study concludes that the complexity of responsive land-use policy requires greater awareness of how to practically support vulnerable communities.

Jesús Sanz Abad, Sara Sama Acedo, Gaël Carrero Gros · · Spain

Case studies of two cooperative enterprises (in finance and forestry) and one new urban commons — community gardens in Madrid — all located in Spain, were analyzed using ethnographic methods within the field of solidarity economy and commons. The analysis found tensions between the initiatives' economically and politically "transformative" aspirations and the reality of operating in a market-driven capitalist environment, alliances and tensions arising from interactions with established institutions, and dilemmas or conflicts between maintaining ideological coherence and extending the initiatives' social base.

Nancy Harlet Esquivel-Marín, Leticia Myriam Sagarnaga Villegas, Octavio T. Barrera-Perales, Juan Antonio Lugo Machado, José María Salas González · Acta Universitatis Sapientiae Agriculture and Environment · Europe

This bibliometric review analyzes the systemic structure of multifunctional agriculture (MFA) and its relationship to sustainability, based on a sample of 432 documents published on the Web of Science platform. Using Bibliometrix and VOSviewer to map scientific collaboration networks, the review identified the authors, journals, and countries shaping the current knowledge structure and four thematic clusters: (a) MFA and sustainability, (b) ecosystem services and biodiversity, (c) European public policies, and (d) governance and urban agriculture. It concludes that, despite an increase in publication rates, research remains concentrated in Europe with few collaborative networks across disciplines, indicating that SDG 17 (partnerships) is not being achieved.

Andrew Millie · Crime Media Culture An International Journal · United Kingdom

This article considered guerrilla gardening, which involves taking on other people’s land without permission. A qualitative study of guerrilla gardeners from the North West of England found that guerrilla gardening is a normalised form of law-breaking. Despite not necessarily being to everyone’s taste and gardeners having an autocratic view of property, it is broadly accepted and welcomed, even by those who enforce the law.

Grete Swensen, Vebjørn Egner Stafseng, Véronique Karine Simon · International Journal of Heritage Studies · France (Bordeaux)

This comparative case study examines two regeneration projects, the Darwin Ecosystem Project in Bordeaux, France, and Dr. Dedichen’s Greenhouse in Oslo, Norway, to understand how heritage combined with urban gardening can enhance areas requiring regeneration. The study notes that conflicting economic, political, and cultural views are likely to affect the heritage discourse in marginalized urban areas. It describes how old buildings and historical fragments can be integrated into urban planning initiatives, with residents, artists, and citizen groups cooperating with planning authorities to transform neighborhoods.

Fiona Greenland · Social Forces · Germany (Ruhr valley)

This review of "How Green Became Good" by Hillary Angelo examines why urban greening became a public good, challenging conventional accounts. Tracing urban greening in Germany's Ruhr valley, Angelo argues that greening constructs not only physical spaces but also social imaginaries, where nature as a public good is mutually constitutive with economic production needs, rather than being in opposition. The work shifts the understanding of urbanized nature from inherently contentious politics to a socio-cultural process of urban modernization.

Giulia Giacchè, Véronique Saint-Gès, Yoann Durrieu, Mélanie Collé, Christine Aubry · Territoire en mouvement · France

A multi-phase method, METH-EXPAU®, is proposed for defining urban agriculture (UA) projects, aiming to help landowners select appropriate UA forms based on territorial characteristics. Applied to three case studies in France—Montrouge, a priority district in Lille, and a new district in Bordeaux—the method revealed its potential and shortcomings. It demonstrated how structural, technical, and social characteristics of spaces and agents can rule out certain UA forms that do not correspond to the territory's current needs.

Petr Klusáček, Stanislav Martinát, Klára Charvátová, Josef Navrátil · Land · Europe

This study investigated the drivers of de-agrarianization in post-socialist cities, using Brno, Czech Republic, as a case study through qualitative interviews. It found procedural issues in preserving architectural heritage during the redevelopment of a former Cistercian monastery site, often resulting in only fragments being preserved. The research also demonstrated a decline in the use of urban agricultural properties, which are rapidly transformed into new urban environments under intense urbanization pressures.

Barbara Sowińska-Świerkosz, Malwina Michalik-Śnieżek, Alicja Bieske-Matejak · Sustainability · Poland

This study analyzed the potential of allotment gardens (AGs) in Poland to be considered nature-based solutions (NBS), examining their use of green/blue infrastructure, problem-solving capabilities, benefits, and economic efficiency. The study identified institutional barriers, irregular distribution of benefits, and deficiencies in economic efficiency as significant obstacles. It concluded that AGs, while a type of unsophisticated NBS, have limited effectiveness.

Dominika Dymek, Agnieszka Wilkaniec, Leszek Bednorz, Magdalena Szczepańska · Sustainability · Poland

This study in Poznań, Poland, examined the significance of allotment gardens in the urban green space system and developed a classification method for urban planning. While over 30% of allotment gardens were found to be of high significance, urban planning documentation indicates plans to reduce their area. Even highly significant gardens are slated for liquidation, highlighting a conflict between their ecological value and current urban development plans.

Sònia Callau-Berenguer, Anna Roca-Torrent, Josep Montasell-Dorda, Sandra Ricart · Investigaciones Geográficas · Spain (Barcelona)

This study analyzed the food system behavior in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, Spain, during the initial stage of the Covid-19 pandemic (March-May 2020). Semi-structured interviews with 11 peri-urban entities and institutions revealed shortcomings in the operation and logistics of the metropolitan food system. Findings also indicated complicity between local producers and urban consumers, the role of peri-urban agricultural areas in food supply, and a need for cooperation among food system agents.

Irene Håkansson · Local Environment · United Kingdom (London)

This paper critically examines urban experimentation for sustainability, arguing that urban experiments are often assessed from a diffusion-oriented perspective that over-emphasizes unifying visions and neglects unsuccessful initiatives. Using a novel methodological approach combining a metropolitan geodemographic typology with qualitative data on 166 active and inactive urban agriculture initiatives across London, the paper demonstrates that neglecting the diversity of urban socio-economic, demographic, and physical contexts may lead to the erroneous suggestion that only demographically privileged places can achieve sustainability. It highlights that contextual differences at neighborhood levels significantly influence socio-spatial patterns of experimentation.

Sandra Schwindenhammer, Denise Gonglach · Politics and Governance · Germany

This qualitative and participatory case study in Germany examined the governance implications of an emerging technology in urban agriculture that connects wastewater treatment and agricultural production for urban hydroponics. The analysis found that while this technology has the potential to facilitate SDG implementation, it simultaneously creates new sector interlinkages between water and food, leading to policy demands that necessitate more integrated policymaking.

Arthur Feinberg, Elena Hooijschuur, Nicole Rogge, Amineh Ghorbani, Paulien Herder · Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation · Europe

This paper presents an agent-based model to explore conditions for sustained participation in urban community gardening projects in Europe, validated with data from Germany and the Netherlands. The study found that not all of Ostrom's Design Principles for collective action lead to higher participation; instead, participation depends on specific combinations of these principles. It also highlights that sanctioning mechanisms are not always beneficial and can be counter-productive in certain contexts for volunteer participation.

Magdalena Szczepańska, Ewa Kacprzak, Barbara Maćkiewicz, Lidia Poniży · Moravian Geographical Reports · Germany; Poland

A comparative study analyzed the use and development of allotment gardens (AGs) in Westphalia and Lippe (Germany) and Wielkopolska (Poland). AGs in Westphalia and Lippe are accessible and harmoniously integrated into the landscape, while AGs in Wielkopolska are less accessible, prioritize internal users, and do not always blend with their surroundings. The considerable freedom enjoyed by Polish plot-holders leads to a gradual marginalization of edible-plant growing.